For wireless devices that interact through an event-based mechanism, whenever an event occurs for which the user's input is required in order to execute an action, the user must be notified of the event and provided with execution options. Events are linked to applications, such that on a specific event occurrence, a particular application will be responsible for carrying out a response, such as executing an appropriate action.
Current systems support applications that contain individually built and maintained user notification processes. The concept of applications requiring user notifications can be found in all of mobile, non-mobile, wireless & non-wireless systems. For non-handheld systems, Microsoft Outlook™ is an example of application with user notifications. For handheld devices, there can be other custom built applications by the vendor. Unfortunately, the systems themselves do not provide any means by which application-defined notifications to the user can be centrally maintained, dispatched and controlled.
Some of the drawbacks of current systems are that each application has to individually design and implement its own event capture and user notification mechanisms, and the application has to be running in order to capture the event and notify the user.